Thursday, September 24, 2015

Tianjin is a metropolis in northern China and one of
the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is
governed as one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the PRC, and is
thus under direct administration of the central government. The land where Tianjin is located today was
created in ancient times by sedimentation of various rivers entering the sea at
Bohai Gulf, including the Yellow River which entered the sea in this area at
one point. There are diverse viewpoints
for the origin of the name, "Tianjin". One version states that
"Tianjin" as a word initially appeared in the poems of Qu Yuan, a
famous patriotic poet of Chu State in the Warring States period.

We have been
reading more about Tianjin, due to the series of explosions that killed over
one hundred people and injured hundreds of others that occurred at a container storage station at the
Port of Tianjin on 12th August 2015. The first two explosions
occurred within 30 seconds of each other at the facility, which is located in
the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, China. Fires caused by the initial explosions
continued to burn uncontrolled throughout the weekend, repeatedly causing
secondary explosions, with eight additional explosions. The cause of the explosions was not
immediately known, but Chinese state
media reported that at least the initial blast was from unknown hazardous
materials in shipping containers at a plant warehouse owned by Ruihai
Logistics, a firm specializing in handling hazardous materials.

Tianjin Dongjiang
Port Ruihai International Logistics is a privately held logistics firm that handles hazardous chemicals within the Port of
Tianjin, such as compressed air, flammable and corrosive substances, oxidizing
agents, and toxic chemicals. There are
some reports that the licence had expired a couple of months earlier. A report in South China Morning Post states
that investigations into the blast have uncovered evidence of corruption and
dereliction of duty on behalf of officials. Those found responsible of such
wrongdoing would be held fully accountable, whoever they were, Premier Li
Keqiang is quoted as stating after hearing from the investigation panel. “Blood should not be shed in vain.” Various
departments should learn from the accident and improve industrial safety, he
added.

In a rare move, the
investigation panel is being headed by the Ministry of Public Security –
usually such panels are headed by the State Administration of Work Safety. Li’s remarks, which came more than a month
since the explosions on August 12, coincided with an announcement by local
government of compensation plans for homeowners living near the site. However,
may of the residents say the plans will not be enough to get their lives back
on track. About a week after the blasts the government agreed to buy back about
10,000 homes following repeated protests by owners who blamed lax regulations
for their loss. In defiance of the official compensation plans, some owners
sealed their buildings and now guard the gates. Some would fight it employing
lawyers, while some tired of the negotiations, are ready to accept the deals.

In another news, it
is reported that a Chinese firefighter, who slipped into coma after receiving
serious injuries in the country's worst industrial disaster at Tianjin port,
regained consciousness 40 days after the incident. Zhang Chaofang, 19,
recovering at Tianjin First Center Hospital is now able to speak, his doctor
Gao Hongmei said.

He was comatose
when transferred to the intensive care unit of the hospital on August 13, he
suffered extensive burns, traumatic brain injuries, respiratory failure, as
well as kidney and liver damage, Gao added. Zhang received four skin graft
operations and all the grafted skin has survived, Gao said. It is reported that on Sept 17, tears were spotted dripping down his cheek
after his mother called his name. The next day, his hand moved, attempting to
touch his mother's face.

The blasts which
rocked where house at the port city is also disastrous for the country's
firefighting unit as 104 firemen were killed besides 11 police officers and 55
civilians. Sad indeed.

British Press
report that Insurer RSA has been left out in the cold by its larger rival
Zurich Insurance, which suddenly pulled out of a £5.6bn bid and revealed it
faces hefty losses caused by last month’s explosions at the Chinese port of
Tianjin. Zurich took the blame for the collapse of the talks the day before it
was due to table a formal offer, causing a 21% fall in RSA’s share price. As
well as citing a $275m (£175m) of losses caused by the industrial accident in
Tianjin last month, it outlined problems in its US car insurance arm rather
than the discovery of any irregularities inside RSA for abandoning the talks. While
RSA responded to the unexpected announcement by stressing it was trading better
than it had expected, it failed to prevent a £1bn drop in its stock market
value after the 106p fall in its shares to 403p. This left the stock below
where it was trading when Zurich’s interest in a takeover was first revealed in
July.

Zurich’s boss
Martin Senn started exploring the 550p a bid share for RSA after telling
investors he had $3bn of cash to spend on deals. But he was facing tough
questions after Zurich blamed the “recent deterioration in the trading
performance in the group’s general insurance business” for terminating the
talks with RSA just a day before required to make a bid under takeover rules. The
collapse of the talks also presented a fresh challenge to Stephen Hester, the
RSA boss who stood to receive £8.5m if the deal was completed after joining
only18 months ago being forced out of Royal Bank of Scotland. One his first
moves was tapping shareholders for £773m and shrinking the business to focus on
the UK & Ireland, Scandinavia and Canada.